Rapture #104: ConsenSys, the most Understated Crypto Company

Now, I admit I might be a bit biased because of my relationship with ConsenSys, but I genuinely think ConsenSys is the most important traditional company in Web 3.0. From MetaMask, which has more than 21 million MAUs, to Infura, the leading node-as-as-service business (sort of like AWS for crypto applications) that supports more than 350,000 developersto a leading smart contract auditing firm in Diligence, ConsenSys spearheads the development of infrastructure that supports the growth and adoption of Web 3.0. Like its founder Joe Lubin, who is also one of the co-founders of Ethereum, ConsenSys has a culture of understating its success.

Currently, the company is valued at $3.2 billion, though I think it should actually be valued at least double that amount.

MetaMask

When users enter the cryptoverse, they do so through MetaMask. Why is MetaMask by far the most popular wallet in crypto? Likely because it is so easy for applications to integrate MetaMask. While MetaMask has spent little on marketing, applications almost always choose to integrate with MetaMask first because of how easy it is. The MetaMask documentation is incredibly robust, and if it you ask any application developers what wallet is easiest to integrate with, I can almost guarantee they will say MetaMask.

MetaMask has a native DEX aggregator in the wallet itself called MetaMask swaps, which is the major cash cow for ConsenSys. As of January 7th, MM swaps generates approximately $1.4 million in revenue per day, which is $511 million annualized. Not too shabby!

Infura

Creating your own application on Ethereum can be incredibly difficult. Most application developers want to focus on serving their users, not on operating the nodes required to support their application. Thus, developers turn to Infura to handle node operations while they focus on the core product.

The closest comparable product to Infura is Alkemi, which is the #2 in the node-as-a-service business. Alkemi is currently valued at $3.5 billion by itself, which is one of the many reasons why I believe ConsenSys is severely undervalued as a company.

ConsenSys Diligence

While not quite having the same stranglehold on its respective market like Infura and MetaMask, ConsenSys Diligence is a top tier smart contract auditing service. Nearly all applications on Ethereum need their smart contracts audited before launching in order to reduce the risk that their contracts are exploited and to increase the confidence users have in the application's success.

Certik, a far less successful auditing shop, recently attained a valuation of $1 billion. You can continue to see why I believe the sum of its parts would be more valuable than the current valuation placed upon the caboodle of CosnenSys.

Future

While ConsenSys has dominated the wallet and Web 3.0 infrastructure spaces, I believe the company in the future will also successfully act as a gateway for institutions to access Web 3.0,  which will bring even more users and capital into the crypto ecosystem.